Pre-distorted sinewave-driven parallel-plate electrostatic actuator for harmonic displacement

Read-out calibration of a SOI capacitive transducer using the pull-in voltage

A Pull-in Based Test Mechanism for Device Diagnostic and Process Characterization

A test technique for capacitive MEMS accelerometers and electrostatic microactuators, based on the measurement of pull-in voltages and resonance frequency, is described. Using this combination of measurements, one can estimate process-induced variations in the device layout dimensions as well as deviations from nominal value in material...

Squeezed film damping measurements on a parallel-plate MEMS in the free molecule regime

This paper provides experimental validation of the predictions by two recent models for squeezed film damping in the free molecule regime. Measurements were carried out using a parallel-plate microstructure with a 2.29 ?m gap operated at pressures from 105 to 101 Pa (corresponding to Knudsen numbers from 0.03 to 300). Experiments are in good...

Fast step-response settling of micro electrostatic actuators operated at low air pressure using input shaping

Squeeze-film damping is highly inadequate in low-pressure systems or in systems where air pressure and/or gap dimensions are poorly defined. Input shaping has been used to circumvent the oscillations typically associated with under-damped mass-spring-damper systems and drastically decrease the settling time. The proposed method does not rely on...

Auto-calibration of capacitive MEMS accelerometers based on pull-in voltage

This paper describes an electro-mechanical auto-calibration technique for use in capacitive MEMS accelerometers. Auto-calibration is achieved using the combined information derived from an initial measurement of the resonance frequency and the measurement of the pull-in voltages during device operation, with an estimation of process-induced...